Main menu

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

Tag Archives: kitchen remodel

A lot has gone on this week. For starters, we have an accepted contract on our land! Now the real work begins as we get feasibility tests conducted for things like a septic system, and of course the overall house. Luckily, we have until the end of January to do them.

In other news, I finally completed the touch-ups in the kitchen, and have before and after photos! One thing that’s obvious in the “before” pics is how much clutter there is. But very little of it was “give away” or “throw away” clutter–most was stuff that had no home (well, except for my dinner sitting out in that one pic. That found a home, LOL!). In the “after” pics, no clutter! And not because I got rid of a bunch of stuff–I did that over a year ago. It’s because everything now has a place! Which is no small feat considering that, as pretty as the new kitchen is, it’s still very small. Just much more efficient use of space.

This kitchen was, and is, about 7’9″ x 11’10”. I was watching House Hunters one time, and the couple was looking at a house with an 8′ x 13′ kitchen. The narrator noted that this is smaller than 2/3 of the kitchens in the U.S. “Not mine!” I thought. Bigger would have been wonderful, but two walls are exterior. The other two walls back up to the staircase, and a bathroom, so there was no option to just knock out a wall, like they do on the HGTV remodeling shows. An addition was way out of our budget, and we’re already maxed out for the neighborhood, home-value-wise. So we made the best of the space we had. I also added some cool new features, like a tall pantry with roll-out shelves, and a little pullout pantry for spices.

Click any photo for a larger view (and see how awful our kitchen really was before!)

Thank heavens for that microwave cart my parents gave us as a gift, many years ago. It was so much appreciated–and still not enough room to contain our food! We couldn’t tilt the window in to clean with it there, but now we can!

Tons of wasted space above the stove. And check out that dumb gap under the window–it was there before the dishwasher was put in. Now it’s all put to use, and even the aloe plants (in hanger) got pretty, new pots (sitting on counter at the right).

More wasted space above the sink. This is why sinks often go under a window–like ours does now. And that soffit? Gone, with ceiling-height cabinets in its place.

This big side counter was a nice prep area for as small as our kitchen is. But even without my dinner sitting out, it was always a mess–even the under-cabinet spice racks were falling apart. Now we have a nice corner for DH’s Keurig (below, right) and room for everything else, plus a big prep area against the back wall where the sink used to be.

Love the pullout spice rack, and the tall pantry! Below the coffee pot in the right pic is a slim cabinet for cookie trays. All that stuff that was sitting out now has a home. I put a lot of thought and research into this (and some work) and DH put a LOT of work into it. As many of you pointed out, it’s so worth it now! We can enjoy it for a good couple years until we move.

What I’ve been reading: The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club Book 2 by Ann Warner. This is the sequel to The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club, and a continuation of the stories of characters I really came to love in that book. It did not have the mystery element that the first book had, but there was still plenty at stake in the characters’ personal relationships. With some series books, it doesn’t matter which order they’re read in, but this one really did take up where the last book left off, and featured the same characters. As the author note in the front points out, readers should read the first book prior to this one. Definitely recommended, even if you don’t normally read women’s fiction. I don’t, but I love these!

ROW80/Writing Update: Not much to tell here. Part of the reason was there’s simply too much else going on, and even when I had time to write, my mind wasn’t on it. But the real issue was that I ran out of outline. I would love to be able to just sit down and write and see where the characters take me, but it just doesn’t work that way for me. Even though my “outlines” are very sketchy–one sentence per scene, and I often deviate from them–I still need that bit of a framework. I tried just outlining a few scenes ahead, which was what I wrote the week before last, but when that ran out, so did my writer’s brain. I did write about 1000 words worth of possible things that could happen, so this week, I want to work that into an outline that will keep me writing.

What about you–what do you think of our kitchen remodel? Have you ever embarked on a project like this? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

I didn’t blog last week, because just as I was about to get started, my husband came in and said, “Let’s do this backsplash.” So we worked on that, and by the time we were done, I realized I didn’t really have anything to report here–I didn’t even finish a book to report on–so decided to just skip it. But hey, I learned something–how to use a tile cutter! I cut while he installed. It came out pretty well, IMO (the pics do not do it justice). Still needs to be sealed and caulked, but mostly done.

The new window frames also need to be caulked. Since the windows need to be clean for that, I cleaned them yesterday. Wow, what a job! With all the construction dust on top of years of grime, it probably took me two hours to scrub two not-very-big windows. With my fatigue, I had to take a lot of breaks (the two hours is not counting that). But they’re clean now, and look great! I also got the last of the dishes unpacked and put away.

After caulking, all that’s left to do is paint the trim, the basement and back doors, and touch-up. Then the dining room needs to be detail-cleaned, because everything in there is coated in dust… and the living room too, with slightly less dust. One of these days, I will have time and energy to write again.

What I’ve been reading:The Babbling Brook Naked Poker Club by Ann Warner. This is a cozy mystery, with a women’s fiction feel–not usually my thing. But Ann is a friend, and one of my earliest critique partners, and I’ve read several of her books that transcended being “not-my-thing.” This one was no exception. It’s the story of a group of ladies in a retirement home who get together to play poker, the “naked” part being figurative–the loser has to share a personal story. It follows two of the ladies, plus the activities director, as they try to figure out who’s been stealing valuables in the community, with a sweet romance developing between the latter and the cop the group befriends. It was mostly a lighthearted and fun read, though the stakes became pretty high near the end. So good I already bought book 2–definitely recommended!

ROW80 update: while there’s been progress here over the past two weeks, it’s mostly been confined to the kitchen (which I am happy to say, I’m already enjoying). I’m trying to get to the computer a little each night, but by the time I do, I’m too tired to do much (my fatigue is mental as well as physical). Now that the big parts of the job are done, I’m hoping that can change. After all, cleaning can be done fifteen minutes at a time. So my goal this week is relatively small: finish the scene I started, that I have about 500 words written.

We’re also in the final stretch of ROW80 Round Three. Since I blog on Sundays, this is the wrap-up for me. So how did I do on my quarterly goals? Well, I got the revising done, so that’s a big one accomplished. Now I just have to finish the book. I’d have liked to have done that, but there has just been too much going on. So that’s getting moved to Round 4, along with several other goals that didn’t get done this quarter. I guess I just had no sense on how time- and energy-consuming this work would be, even though my husband did most of the major work.

What about you–what’s been taking up your time lately? Read any good books recently? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing-related or not? How do you manage a big task? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

A lot of visible progress on the kitchen this week! Cabinets went in on Monday, and were finished by Wednesday. That night, DH and I hung the light fixtures–a pendant light over the sink, and a flexible track light in the middle. That was DH’s idea, and it looks really cool!

On Thursday, he and my dad installed the range, and put the dishwasher in place, though it will be another three weeks before we can use that. When I got home from work, he and I put the microwave up, then cooked our first meal in the new oven. I have never used a convection oven before, and wow–25 degrees cooler, and 1/3 less time to cook the food! Very nice. 🙂

On Friday, DH and my dad hung the under-cabinet lighting and finished some other electrical stuff. Saturday, I met with my writer friends for the first time in two months (we all were out of town at different times last month), which was fun as always. While I was there, a friend of ours who’s a carpenter came over and helped DH with the window and door trim. It looks great! I will paint it sometime this week. They also moved the fridge in, so now I need to clean it and put food in! Getting our old fridge out of the dining room will be soooo nice. DH will be happy to put that in the garage, as it will hold a lot more beer than the one he has out there now. 🙂

What I’ve been reading: Not much time this week, but I always read a little before bed. This week, it was the short stories in Smith’s Monthly #24, by Dean Wesley Smith, plus I started the novel. A couple of the stories were really creepy-weird, one was really funny-weird, and then there was a Poker Boy superhero story, which are always entertaining. And the novel is shaping up to be good, too. I really love the Cold Poker Gang mysteries. More on that next week.

ROW80 Update: As you might guess from above, not much writing got done this week. Monday was a bad fatigue day, so I mostly watched TV in the evening, and did a little revision. Tuesday, we had an out-of-town friend over and went out to dinner, so just a little revising after that. Wednesday was installing the lights, no revising. Thursday, the microwave, and no revising. Friday and Saturday, just a little. I think I got 1-1/2 scenes done, so better than nothing. I would like to get more done this week, but not counting on it. Even two scenes would be good!

What about you–what’s going on in your life right now? Are you ever too busy to read? How are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

The last few weeks have been crazy-busy around here! And all good stuff. Most of that is due to the kitchen remodel, which is on schedule, so that’s good. My daughter also turned 21 a couple weeks ago (I, know, 😯 ) so we had a little party for her–a bit of a challenge without a kitchen, but workable with our party room in the back garage. A good time was had by all, and though it wasn’t a barf-day for my daughter, it was for her friend who came home with her!

More craziness came from their house, which we own and rent to them and two other kids. We contacted our Realtor to put it up for sale, figuring it could take a while for the right buyer to come along. WRONG! We had an offer the very next day! It was a lowball amount, but they eventually came up to a price that will give us a tidy profit, and is still a fair price for them, considering the rent the place brings in. Our daughter and her friends met the buyers when they looked at the house, and said they seemed like they’d be very nice landlords. Best of all, we don’t have to worry about renting it for next year–that’s now the buyer’s responsibility.

So back to the kitchen. My evenings have been taken up with trips to Lowe’s, and also doing some of the work. Last week, I painted the few sections of the walls that wouldn’t be hidden by cabinets or backsplash. This past week has been tiling. DH did 90% of that, but the remaining 10% was a bear. We thought we’d save some time and get the all-in-one grout that doesn’t need any mix-ins or sealer. But this stuff hardens much faster, and doesn’t just wipe off with a wet sponge–it needed to be scraped. If we were to do this over, we’d definitely use traditional grout! In any case, it’s done now, and looks great! DH got the appliances today (which are currently sitting in my garage), and the cabinets go in tomorrow. Progress!

What I’ve been reading: I dug into a fantasy this past week,Sand and Storm, by Patty Jansen. While the characters drew me in with how well-developed they were, the worldbuilding in this book was the real star. Many, rich cultures and all the politics of their interactions and their histories… yet it wasn’t an info-dump bore, but deftly worked into the story. The book did end on a cliffhanger, with little resolved, which I know is common in fantasy but still not my fave. However, it was such a good book I went and preordered the sequel, which is due out in a month. This author is pretty prolific, so I’m confident she’ll deliver. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy fantasy!

ROW80 Update: Judging from all that’s gone on, you might guess that not much has been done on the writing front. And two weeks ago, you’d have been right. But last week, I finally powered through the last (I hope) sloppily-written, PITA to revise scene, plus two others. This week, three more scenes revised. Things are still busy this week, as I expect to be putting stuff away in the new kitchen cabinets, but I’m still going to shoot for 3-4 more scenes revised. A big bonus would be to finish all seven remaining.

What about you–any crazy busy-ness in your life? Here’s hoping it’s all good! Or maybe you’re lucky enough to be enjoying a more settled summer. Either way, what have you been up to? And how are you doing on whatever goals you have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

My husband’s been on a long-haul motorcycle ride vacation out west. (And no, that’s not the distraction the title’s referring to, LOL.) He’d planned to be away for almost three weeks, but plans changed with one of his companions, and he returned a week early.

Which was fine with me. 🙂 I realized, while he was gone, that a few days of him away is a “vacation,” as my mom calls it, but more is just too quiet. It gives me even more respect and gratitude to military spouses–something I would not be good at being. The important thing (besides his safe return) was that he had a great time and saw some really awesome (literally) parts of the country.

What the kitchen looked like a week ago

His plan was to start the kitchen remodel as soon as he got back. THAT has been the distraction–and thank goodness, a good one!

I had the kitchen already packed up before he returned. He slept most of the day, but the day after that, he jumped right in, with the help of a few friends.

On the left, you can get an idea of what the kitchen looked like before. It’s very small–this photo was taken from the opposite corner, which as you can see, is not very far away.

The kitchen when I arrived home from work on Tuesday

It would have been great to enlarge the kitchen, but the back wall backs up to the bathroom, and the other side backs up to a staircase. The other two walls are exterior. So opening up the kitchen would require an addition, which was definitely not in our budget. So we decided to keep it small, but maximize the space and make it very nice.

The other big problem with this kitchen is that everything is old and worn out, and its layout was very inefficient–see the dumb, wasted space between the stove and dishwasher? And no storage over the stove or refrigerator? That will all change. And let’s not even start on the oh-so-seventies floor or cabinets–ugh.

This can’t happen too soon, and my DH agreed. He and two friends dug into it on Tuesday. My DH does not waste any time. 😀 After everything was removed, we found some good news, and some bad. The bad was that we had a lot of old, galvanized pipes that were rusting and needed to be replaced. Fortunately, the plumber is a friend, and charged us about half his normal rate. The good news was that my husband expected to need to replace the subfloor–but it turned out to be in great shape, with no damage at all!

We had the plumbing for the sink moved to beneath the window on Friday, along with the bad pipes replaced. Now, DH and an electrician friend are rewiring the whole kitchen, because like many things in our 1950s house, the electric was never completely updated, or done right. With the new kitchen, I’ll be able to use the microwave and an electric skillet at the same time without throwing a breaker. 🙂 Next up, flooring!

It sounds like DH is doing all the work, right? He is, but that work includes many trips to Lowe’s, where I go with him to pick out stuff or to simply help load/unload. And he has had questions while installing the electric, so those are the distractions. But they’re distractions I don’t mind.

What I’ve been reading:Friends and Fortune Cookies, by Elizabeth Bemis.This is the book I mentioned a while back, when I read another by her, Love and Oreos. Liz was one of my very first critique partners many years ago, and while I’d never read Love at all, I did read and critique a very early incarnation of Friends. It was fun to read the published book and spot little things I remembered from way back then. These included the main characters, their names, and their professions, as well as the main premise of the story: the couple had been friends for most of their lives, but whenever their relationship started to progress to something more, they always screwed it up. There were, of course, a lot of differences in the published book. The main one was that there was a lot more conflict between the hero and heroine, and more baggage preventing them from easily getting their HEA (happily ever after), which made it an enjoyable read. So if you enjoy contemporary romance, grab this one for sure! If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, it’s free.

ROW80 Update: As you can guess from the rest of this post, I did not accomplish much at all with my writing. The distractions are part of the problem, but the other is that I’m revising a book I wrote half of during NaNoWriMo 2013, and it was written very sloppily. Some of the scenes just need a bit of touch up here and there, but the one I’m working on now needs a lot of fill-in, so it’s a bunch of not-much-fun fixup work, and going very slowly. If I get this scene finished this week, I’ll be happy with that. Anything else is a bonus.

What about you–have you had any distractions lately? What have you been reading, and what do you normally like? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.